The Abrupt Reversal of British Policy toward Lower Canada Causes a Non-Importation Campaign Against British Goods

A final factor was needed to turn Mackenzie's thoughts in the direction of armed uprising, and that was the abrupt reversal of British policy toward Lower Canada. Following the failure of Lord Gosford's mission of conciliation, Lord John Russell announced a return to firmness in his Ten Resolutions of March 2, 1837. These Resolutions rejected the demands of the Papineau party and allowed the governor to take funds from the provincial treasury that the Assembly had refused to vote.... The passage of the Ten Resolutions brought Mackenzie to new heights of furious indignation.... He was soon in correspondence with Wolfred Nelson, perhaps the most militant radical leader in the lower province, and he was soon preaching the doctrine of non-importation. "Buy, wear, and use as little as you possibly can of British manufactured goods or British West India merchandize or liquors." Mackenzie now agreed with his Lower Canadian friends that a bold attack must be made against British authority, not simply against the local oligarchy.

--Gerald M. Craig, Upper Canada: The Formative Years, 1784-1841, Wynford Project (Don Mills: Oxford University Press Canada, 2013), 244.